There Shall Come A Day Spring
His name is Stryfe though many call him simply The Chaos Bringer. He breathes the humid air, the bugs stick to the sweat on his forehead. If the weight of his weaponry affects him in any way, as he makes his way through the thick jungle underbrush, he doesn't show it. The man known as Stryfe is blessed, or is it cursed, with the single-minded ability to ignore any obstacle when he has a clearly defined goal in sight. Especially when that goal is murder.
Stryfe raises his plasma rifle and blasts open the hatch leading to the underground sanctuary of Tyler. He hears voices and ventures deeper into the citadel, approaching a vent he looks down to see the voices owners.
He was right. He knew he sensed the presence of another powerful psi. An Askani' Sister and also Cable's son, Tyler. Stryfe blasts through the vent and drops down to greet his fellow travelers through time.
While still covering Tyler with the plasma rifle, Stryfe looks down, with eyes that are not his own, at the helmet he once wore, and he smiles. He was raised to be the ultimate symbol of a dictatorship two thousand years into the future. Instead he rebelled and became a deadly spokesman for total anarchy. Ironically enough, now, after his plans and fevered dreams of mayhem have been thwarted time and time again, Stryfe wants to bring some semblance of order into his life.
"The need for masks, I imagine, is over? Isn't it, my 'son'? You understand that it is Stryfe who now inhabits the mind of your father, Cable, don't you? Or would it suit your own twisted sense of justice better if it were your real father's finger that is poised to pull the trigger?" Stryfe asks.
"You don't scare me, Stryfe. You exist here and now because I planned for this occurrence. With your own body destroyed in the temporal vortex you triggered on the moon, the only way I could gain a measure of vengeance on both you and my father was for you to exist in the same body at the same time. The only event which I had not anticipated was the arrival of the chronal-jumping member of the Sisterhood of Askani'" Tyler tells him.
"Yet it is because of her that I was able to find you, Tyler Dayspring. The only question nagging me now is what do I do with the two of you? Would that I could eliminate you as easily as I do this shell of what I once was." Stryfe says, as he blasts his old helmet to pieces.
"You can't deny what you were, Stryfe. What you are." Tyler tells him.
"And what am I, Pup?" Stryfe asks.
"A failure! In both body and mind, considering your current state of being. Unable and unwilling to accept the truth." Tyler replies.
"And what truth is that?" Stryfe asks.
"You really don't know? This is delicious, Kinsman, truly delicious. You don't know the truth about your birth, about who you really are? You are not the true son of Scott Summers and Madelyne Pryor, as you were led to believe. Cable is!"
"LIAR!" Stryfe screams.
"The son of Dayspring speaks the truth, Chaos Bringer." Askani' tells him.
"What would you know of the truth, Askani'? Your order was crushed long ago in our time node and even when you did flourish, you were nothing more than the whispered words of children's stories of a mad woman." Stryfe tells her.
"The order still exists, Stryfe. We were badly broken by the assault of Apocalypse's Dog Soldiers, but if we no longer existed in our time, how could I have time-slipped back to this node in order to warn the Chosen Ones of your return?" Askani asks.
"You warned them of my return? Do Jean Grey and Scott Summers know that I've returned in Cable's body?" Stryfe asks.
"If the Chosen Mother heard my call, yes." Askani' replies.
"You ruinous time betraying, hypocritical witch!" Stryfe screams, as he blasts the containment beams that hold Askani' prisoner. "Your containment field is destroyed, Askani'Child. Float away and cause your pain some other day. Dispersed as I was, a disembodied sentient stream of electrons and particles. Lost in deed and motive, lost in time."
"Stryfe, you fool, what have you done? Do you have even the slightest understanding of what her dissemination means? My mutant power is to telepathically affix myself to someone's memories and visually display them. I was psychically attuned to Askani' when you destroyed her containment field, Stryfe." Tyler tells him.
"And?" Stryfe asks.
"Fool! All she was, all she knew, all those ghosts of what has and what is yet to be, are going to form through me." Tyler says, as images of the past begin to form around them.
"What are you showing us?" Stryfe asks.
"The truth, Stryfe. The truth about your birth, your life and, hopefully, your death!" Tyler tells him.
Back at Camp Verde, Domino and the others are still standing in shocked silence at Zero's question.
TO REITERATE, IN ORDER FOR YOU TO PROMOTE PEACE, YOU WILL HAVE TO KILL YOUR OWN SON. AS HE IS NOW CONTROLLED BY THE FOMENTER OF CHAOS CALLED STRYFE, THE BIOLOGICAL SOLDIER FOR PEACE, NATHAN DAYSPRING, JUST NOW BE TERMINATED.
"Really? For a construct claiming to be a peace keeper, isn't that rather contradictory?" Charles asks.
AS YOU SAY, CHARLES XAVIER.
"Are you verifying that Cable is not currently in command of his own faculties?" Charles asks.
CORRECT. THE CIRCUMSTANCE, THOUGH CONVOLUTED, IS EXPLICABLE. THE PHYSICAL SHELL OF STRYFE WAS DESTROYED WHEN BOTH HE AND CABLE DISAPPEARED INTO THE TEMPORAL VORTEX CREATED ON THE LUNAR SURFACE. CABLE SURVIVED, THOUGH HE WAS DISPLACED FAR INTO A FUTURE NODE. SCIENCE OF THAT DAY WAS ABLE TO RESTORE CABLE'S BODY TO OPERATING CAPACITIES, BUT NOT HIS MIND. FOR THOUGH STRYFE'S BODY WAS LOST, THE COMBINATION OF THE ELECTROMAGNETIC FLUX THEY WERE TRAPPED IN COMBINED WITH THE GENETIC SIMILARITIES BETWEEN BOTH MEN RESULTED IN STRYFE'S BRAINWAVES STILL BEING ACTIVE IN CABLE'S BODY, BUT ONLY ONE OF THEM WAS CAPABLE OF CONTROLLING THE HOST ORGANISM WHEN SPECIFIC FREQUENCY ALIGNMENTS OCCUR
"And Mr. Sinister was able to isolate these separate frequencies and cause Stryfe's brainwave pattern to gain control?" Charles asks.
CORRECT. UNDERSTAND ALSO, THAT THE LONGER THIS FREQUENCY MAINTAINS CONTROL, THE LIKELIER IT IS TO BECOME A PERMANENT TRANSFERENCE.
"Scott, this may be the only opportunity left for you to find out the truth about your son." Jean tells him.
NO LONGER NEED EITHER OF YOU OPERATE FROM THE MISTAKEN ASSUMPTION THAT ANYTHING STRYFE TOLD YOU ON THE MOON WAS TRUE.
"What Domino said earlier, that Cable really is Nathan Christopher grown up, that was the truth, wasn't it?" Scott asks.
"Which would make our reasons for wanting Stryfe out of Cable's head even more important, right, Summers?" Domino asks.
"But why hasn't Stryfe tried to gain his twisted revenge on Scott and Jean again?" Charles asks.
STRYFE HAS REGISTERED THE PRESENCE OF TWO TIME ANOMALIES WHICH NEED HIS ATTENTION FIRST.
"One is Tyler, Cable's son who for years masqueraded as an arms merchant named Tolliver." Dom told them.
"And the other is?" Scott asks.
JEAN GREY KNOWS. SHE FELT THE TELEPATHIC CALL OF A KINSMEN.
"Askani'! That's who warned me of Stryfe's return." Jean tells them.
NOT THE ASKANI YOU ONCE MET, BUT A DIFFERENT MEMBER OF THEIR SACRED ORDER. DO YOU WISH TO PREVENT STRYFE FROM TERMINATING THE LIFE FUNCTIONS OF THESE TWO TIME SPIRITS?
"Of course we do." Charles answers.
THIS UNIT SHALL TRANSPORT US TO THEIR PRESENT LOCATION. DUE TO THE GRAVITY OF INJURIES INCURRED BY THE ENTITIES KNOWN AS RICTOR AND SIRYN, THEY WILL REMAIN HERE.
With this, Zero opens a teleportational portal and with a flash of light Rictor and Theresa are left all alone.
"Wonderful! Cable's life hangs in the balance and we hang on the sidelines." Rictor says.
"Somethin' tells me, Ric, that where they're goin' may be no place we really want to be." Theresa replies softly.
In Tyler's citadel, Stryfe grabs Tyler by the throat, pulls him close and asks,
"Where are these false images coming from, Pup?"
"Look, you Animal, look! I can only show you actual historical fact!" Tyler explains.
"But if this is all true, then everything I was told about myself was a LIE!!" Stryfe screams.
As the future/past is laid out before him, Stryfe sees sees the incubation cribs, where the cloned body of the child from the past slowly draws breath. He sees the Canaanite Dog-Soldiers of En-Sabah Nur, The Apocalypse, crush through the walls of the Temple of the Askani'
He sees the Novitiates of the Order fleeing in panic, he sees the Mother of them all, the one known as the Bright Lady, cries tears of joy and despair as the horror she knew would one day come, the destruction she feared to come, takes place all around her.
"How?" Stryfe asks.
"I can do more than show it to you, Stryfe. I can enable you to hear it, to feel it as if you were there." Tyler says, as he reaches out and touches Stryfe, seemingly transporting them both into the events playing out around them.
"Save for a few scars, My Lady, the clone is in perfect health." Boak says.
"And the template, the true child?" Mother Askani' asks.
"Hard as it may be to believe, Mother Askani' the techno-organic virus which had infected the child has arrested it's spreading malignancy." Boak replies.
"My Lady, Canaanite troops are incoming!" Throeblood tells her, as he burst into the room, fresh from the combat raging outside.
"Quickly, Boak, remove the Chosen One's from the chambers! Throeblood, prepare for an evacuation! We must..." Mother Askani' begins, but is interrupted by the wall being taken out by a thermite grenade.
"They are here already, but I have been able to open only one of the chambers." Boak yells.
FWACHOOM
Rachel Summers, The Mother Askani' now lies cut in half by the plasma rifle of an unknown Canaanite soldier.
"Boak, take the Chosen One with you now. I will endeavor to save the other! Leave now, Boak, and save as many as you can!" Throeblood orders.
Though Throeblood takes many a Dog-Soldier with him before he goes, he is finally put down. A soldier runs back outside to inform his lord that it is over.
"It is done, My Lord. The illegal activities of this religious order have been terminated." The soldier tells him.
With this a huge figure strides forth and all the soldiers in the room bow down and cast their eyes to the floor, as Apocalypse himself enters the room and goes immediately to the incubation crib, rips the top off and lifts the babe high cradled in one hand.
"As if that had truly been my point of interest in this situation. No, it was the child which drew me here. This light attracting me like the moth to a flame. Welcome to the future, son of pain, father of the morning fire. Welcome to a world of Stryfe!" Apocalypse says to the child.
"And that is what was left of me? Because my chamber did not open in time, I was the one taken by Apocalypse. The clone! The duplicate! But don't you see, it was destiny! I was created for a reason, to rule! To dominate! And those who have sinned against me will pay!" Stryfe shouts.
ZZARKK
Stryfe is knocked off his feet by Cyclops' energy blast.
"Who would dare?" Stryfe asks, getting to his feet.
APPARENTLY THOSE WHO HAVE EVERY REASON AND RIGHT TO.
"Be careful, all of you! The amount of temporal electromagnetic and psionic energy building inside this installation is terrifying in it's potential for destruction!" Charles tells them.
"None of that matters, Professor. I've got to save my son!" Cyclops replies.
"Too little and too late, 'Father'!" Stryfe yells, as he knocks them all back with an awesome telekinetic blast. "You brought them here, Zero? Synthetic Judas! How dare you defy me! I saved you from a scrap heap closet floating in outer space. You sought to stop me and further your delusional programming as a peace keeper, didn't you? All you have truly done is seal the fates of the very one's you sought to help." Stryfe tells them.
I THINK NOT.
"What...what're you doing?" Stryfe yells, as bands of energy form around him.
"Zero is channelling the energy wavelength through which Askani' existed in this time through Stryfe!" Charles explains. "This affords us the opportunity to stop him, Jean, link minds with me. Through our telepathic abilities, all of us will work together in trying to force Stryfe out of Cable's body."
"Charles, I...I'm afraid of what I might see inside his mind." Jean replies.
"And it is for that very reason, Jean, our fear of the pain and anguish which lie within the minds of both Cable and Stryfe. The enigmatic frightening contradiction between the man who released the legacy virus and the one we begin to suspect may hold the cure for it. It is for all these reasons and more, that we have no choice but to enter his mind and strive to stitch together the tattered remnants of these torn lives." Charles tells her.
And in they go, two of the greatest telepaths on the planet earth. Figuratively taking the mind of Cyclops by the hand and slipping through the folds of Stryfe's guarded, barricaded memories. He fights them, but it only sharpens the sting of the images which play themselves out, as Stryfe's painful past is unreeled before the group consciousness. The abusive training at the hands of Apocalypse's Dog-Soldiers. The emotional and psychological torture used to harden the child and break his spirit. The development of his mutant abilities and the manipulative, horrendous ways in which they were used against the enemies of the State. The gorging of his armor, crafted and designed to stand as a silver, shining sentry of the Canaanite rule and in many ways, the final nail in the coffin, as it were, serving to bury the human soul within a cold metal shell.
"Stryfe, listen to me, to all of us, there is no need for your hatred to be directed toward those here. They only seek the truth. You can begin the process of healing yourself by allowing them the opportunity to help you." Askani' tells him.
"No. I cannot, but...I..I...don't know.." Stryfe replies.
"Look at them, Stryfe. Look at them, son and father and father to the father. Look at them and feel their pain, feel the gnawing emptiness in each of their hearts. See Scott Summers, as he and his brother Alex are pushed out of a burning plane by their parents, feel their hands on your back, the last touch you will ever know of your parents' love is a rough shove. Hear his scream, the boy's throat raw and hoarse from the echoing spiralling cry of loss as Scott Summers sent his child, barely a year old into an uncertain future in order, he hoped upon hope, to offer the baby a chance to survive. Search the soul and mind's eye of the body you now inhabit and understand what it was like for Nathan Christopher, ignorant that he was but a part of a never ending cycle of pain and anguish. Feel the awkward first steps Nathan struggled to take as his gnarled, withered limbs, ravaged as they were in childhood by the techno-organic virus, filled him with a pain which he endures to this day. Then, play again the horrific scene you were guilty of causing, as Nathan, in order to save the life of his Troop-Mates, was forced to cripple his own son. Feel the wheels turn 'round and 'round, Stryfe. The circle spins ever onward from father to son, as Tyler, his mind a withered husk, lies on the operating slab of Parridan Haight's eugenics scientist, his soul reconstructed into that of a killer, programmed to travel back in time for the express purpose of killing his own father, Nathan Dayspring. Yet, Tyler was able to break his electro-neuroprogramming, but not the hate which grips his icy heart. And now, you threaten Nathan's life with no sense of irony intended, his very individuality, through your selfish possession of his body. The decision must be made here and now, by you and you only. You have shown yourself, Stryfe, to be so able and willing to to use your great powers to kill and destroy, but do you have the strength to use them in the most noble way imaginable? Do you have the courage to sacrifice yourself by using your abilities to close the gaping emotional chasm between these men and heal them of their painful spiritual wounds? Are does that scare you, knowing that such an act would serve to help, in some small, silently hopeful way to absolve you of the terrible suffering you have unfairly endured and unfairly caused upon others?" Askani' asks him.
"I fear nothing, Askani' for the mantle was mine to take, but if in passing you think I can bring some hope to others, then I guess the last laugh is on all of you. Because then a life that never should have been, and will be no more, will continue to wreak havoc...even after death." Stryfe tells them, and with this Cable's body collapses to the floor. Cyclops is there in a heartbeat, just barely edging out Domino.
"Cable? Nathan...my son." Scott says, trying to rouse him.
"Father?" Nathan says, opening his eyes.
"I'm so sorry. For everything that happened, I'm so sorry." Scott tells him, as he pulls Nathan into a fierce hug.
Nathan gets to his feet and immediately looks for Tyler.
"Tyler? Tyler!" Nathan shouts.
"He is gone, Cable. While we were still joined inside your, Stryfe's, mind. I felt him escape. I am sorry, but I could not track his departure and still maintain the fragile union we forged against Stryfe." Charles explains.
"Professor, at the end, I reached out to Stryfe and asked him for some clue to the cure for the legacy virus. I knew it was futile, but I had to try." Jean tells them.
"Some matters can't be settled by simple solutions. That's something I'll always have to deal with, and keep trying to find a way to fix." Cable tells her.
"Then we must redouble our efforts to find a solution to his legacy virus, my friends. And you, Cable, will you be joining us?" Charles asks.
"Xavier, strange as it may be to understand, I've been a part of your ideals for more years than you know. Just think of me as one of those crazy relatives you don't want visiting too often." Cable says, as he retrieves his plasma rifle and turns to Dom, "Dom, let's go home."
"Wait, it can't be that easy for you to just walk away, like this. Isn't there anything you want to say to me? Anything you want to know?" Scott asks him.
"I..don't...I can't...after all this time..I don't know it I can...I.." Nathan leans the plasma rifle against the wall and turns back to face his father, "I'd like to know...I mean...could you..tell me a little more...about my mother?"
Jean silently motions the others out so as to give a father and his son a chance to take the first awkward steps in getting to know one another. She knows that, as with everything in life it, is always the first steps which are the hardest to take.
Our Journey Continues With
Child's Play
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